Prehistoric Safari

The genesis for this story was actually a computer program: a Dorling Kindersley product called "3D Dinosaur Hunter". Disc two allows you to wander around six 3D environments, interacting with dinosaurs. Once, I took several pictures in each of the six sections -- I can't remember if it was with the standard print screen option or if the program has a built-in snapshot feature. And at first, that's all it was: just an album of pictures from the program. Then I hit on the idea to write a story around those pictures. And that's how this story developed: every event was just written to try and justify one of the pictures. Naturally, I inserted the relevant pictures into the document at the proper places, and I've decided to do the same thing here.

The story is about a photographer sent back to dinosaur times in order to test a newly invented time machine. I first wrote it in 2005, and there's only so much I could edit in the intervening years due to the limits set by the source program. For example, the program was made before it was concluded that raptors had feathers, so unfortunately the outdated image is still present here. Also, the program erroneously has Brachiosaurus rear up on its hind legs to reach higher branches; in real life, it was too front-heavy to do that.

But, regardless of those few inaccuracies, I hope you enjoy it.